Peeing JetBlue passenger Sandy Vietze drank at bar before flying out of Portland

View full sizeThe Associated Press/fileA Vermont teen, a passenger on a JetBlue flight from Portland to New York, allegedly urinated on a sleeping girl.

The teen charged with allegedly peeing on a young girl during a red-eye flight from Portland International Airport to New York's JFK Airport told officers who arrested him hours later that he started his drinking at a bar before flying.

Eighteen-year-old Robert "Sandy" Vietze, an elite skier who had just wrapped up a weeklong U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association training camp at Mount Hood, told the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officers who met JetBlue Flight 166 in New York, that he consumed five to six beers and two rum and cokes before arriving at Portland's airport.

After boarding the flight that took off at 10:29 p.m. Tuesday, Vietze told Det. Shawn Russell he passed out.

"Vietze reported that the alcohol 'hit' him during the flight. The next thing he remembers is being yelled at by the girl's father," the summary of probable cause states.

In between passing out and being yelled at, the report describes Vietze getting up at about 2:30 a.m., walking to seat 15A, where the 12-year-old girl was sleeping, and urinating.

The girl's father, returning after taking her 14-year-old sister to the rest room, found Vietze in the act.

When the father approached, "Vietze stated he had an accident," according to the probable cause summary. The father described the young man as "out of it."

Vietze, of Warren, Vt., was taken into custody after the plane landed shortly after 5:30 a.m. Wednesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport and was issued a federal summons for misdemeanor indecent exposure, said Port Authority spokeswoman Sara Beth Joren.

"He was intoxicated and was charged as it's against the law to pee on another person," Joren said.

Reports
by Port Authority that charges against Vietze were later dropped are untrue, said Robert Nardoza, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

"We did not drop the case. By all
means this is a pending case," Nardoza said Friday morning. If convicted
of misdemeanor indecent exposure, Vietze could face a $1,000 fine and up to a
year in jail, he said.

No return date for the federal summons has been set, Nardoza said. But it will likely be sometime this fall, he said.

Meanwhile, Vietze, was a competitive downhill skier nominated to the U.S. Development Alpine Ski Team for the 2011-12 season and training to qualify for the
2014 Winter Games in Russia.

On Friday, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association Executive Vice President of Athletics Luke Bodensteiner released a statement saying Vietze has been dismissed as a result of the incident.

"Based on the information we have, Sandy Vietze is in violation of the USSA code of conduct and team agreement, and has been dismissed from the team."

A USSA team agreement prohibits athletes from illegally using or possessing alcohol.